Trapped

It seemed as though I was watching Allison in some out-of-body experience, as if I wasn’t actually standing beside her as she clutched a wooden chair with white knuckles; I was indulging in the essence of my third-person world—a dream-like and trouble-free sight that dominated reality.

“Hey, I said, ‘Are you ready?’” Anxious eyes stared at me.

“What?” I responded.

Allison’s eyes widened. She thought she was losing me. A rush of sudden heat flushed my face. My vision became more focused, and my mind was set. “Sorry, okay.” I nodded my head and blinked a few times. After I took in a long breath, I said, “Whenever you’re ready.”

She gave me one last glance of assurance, and I showed her no trepidation. Allison turned her head to the plastered wall and slightly squinted her eyes. I saw her arm muscles tighten as sweaty palms gripped the chair. She spread her legs to shoulder width and slightly bent her knees and assumed a comfortable stance. With wooden chair legs pointed at the wall, Allison began to swing the chair back and forth, a silent countdown obviously beginning in her head.

I stood to the side and watched as my mind raced and sweat beaded on my hairline and forehead. Silently, a breath left my lungs as I prepared myself…

“Go!” A sudden impact in the wall and an outburst from Allison set me to motion. She yanked the bottom half of the chair out of the wall, and I kneeled next to the opening. I stuck my head though the wall into a dark shaft that ran vertically on this wall. Three ropes, all thick, worn, and frayed, ran up and down the wall. I grabbed the one closest to me in my right hand and pulled on it with difficulty. Nevertheless, I had pulled it hard enough to activate some sort of pulley system and make something further in the wall move.

I pointed to a new section of the wall to the left of me. “Quick, bust it open right around here.” Another swing of her chair and a powerful kick revealed a niche in the wall.

No, it’s a dumbwaiter. “A dumbwaiter,” Allison spoke my thoughts. We stood still for a moment, curiously gazing. Distant footsteps coming down the hall panicked us.

“Hurry up, get in.” Allison had already dropped the chair and halfway lifted me off the ground and into the confined dumbwaiter.

“What—no. No! This isn’t safe! The rope’ll break!” I pleaded. But Allison, stronger than I had expected, plopped me in the dumbwaiter like a toddler being placed in a playpen. I had to scrunch myself into an awkward fetal position to fit. She reached over to the ropes and looked at me one last time.

Her crystalline eyes probed me as the locks on our door came unlatched and our time was depleting. “I’m going to bring you to the attic. Find a way out. You’re strong; be brave.”

One yank of the weathered rope took me only a few inches up the wall. I could till see the room through the upper half of the hole Allison had put in the wall. Just then, I see the door swing open, pushing aside the useless wooden chair that had blocked it, and Allison looked back at the two burly men coming at her.

Snap!

I experienced a moment of confusion and nausea, but I then realize…

I’m plummeting down the dark shaft. Rust it scraping against rust as Allison’s screams fade and mine grow. A blaze of light and a metallic collision greets the bottom of the shaft. A smoky layer of dust rises into my eyes.

Drunkenly, I flopped out of the dumbwaiter and crawled only a few paces into the brightly-lit room. Am I in Heaven? I couldn’t manage my stomach anymore, and I vomited in the corner of the room. Dammit, I’m not dead.My eyes cleansed out the dust and adjusted to the brilliant glow. Just put me out of my misery already!

I realized that I have stumbled into an abandoned kitchen. Films of dust and mold covered racks and shelves of dirty dishes, pots, and pans. Thousands of them. And there must’ve been ten stoves. Am I in some old factory or business?

Even though there is no trace of any living thing ever have being down here within the last so many years, flood lights are on full blast on the other side of the room.

Shit. Someone’s down here…they heard the waiter fall, and now they’re probably looking for me. Get out of here, quick, Leslie.